Jarrow Roofing see red on a day best forgotten

Andy Hudson

JARROW Roofing returned home from their first ever visit to Consett’s new Belle Vue Stadium pointless after a 3-0 defeat on a day the South Tynesiders will want to forget.

With Dan Kirkup and Alex White completing their three-game suspensions and Corey Barnes still injured, Roofing were further reduced in numbers due to the unavailability of Paul Chow, a revelation since his return to Boldon earlier this month.

HEAVY CHALLENGE ... Elliott and Morien collide.

And with four key players missing, it showed as Roofing turned in a disjointed performance with the Steelmen well on top from the first whistle.

It was only a matter of when, not if, Consett would show some quality to score and that arrived after 37 minutes when Danny Craggs whipped a free-kick over the Roofing wall to beat Andy Hunter and send his team in ahead at the break.

Roofing came out with renewed vigour in the second half, though a critical moment where Consett handballed in the box with referee Shane Sugden instead awarding a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area, would prove costly. Soon afterwards, Roofing gifted Consett their second goal.

Marshall, pegged back deep inside his half, elected to throw the ball square into the centre of the pitch rather than up the line. Craggs was onto Danny Carson before the defender could clear the ball and raced in on goal to finish low past Hunter on the hour mark.

Sugden had no other option than to show the Roofing forward red.

The Roofers were then reduced to 10 men when Malky Morien retaliated to a heavy collection of the ball from Chris Elliott by motioning his head towards the Consett’s goalkeeper’s face, and Sugden had no other option than to show the Roofing forward red.

Having stuck to the rule book only seven minutes earlier, Sugden then showed leniency to Consett when Scott Martindale’s two-footed tackle on Paul Gardiner, the Consett defender leaving the ground and failing to win anything other than the midfielder’s legs, was met only with a yellow card.

From the free-kick, Peter Leven, brought on for Gardiner, clipped a cross over that landed at the feet of Lewy Teasdale who had his legs taken from him inside the box before he could get a shot away. Yet Sugden elected the tackle to have been fair.

With all possibilities of a comeback snuffed out, Roofing then contrived to present another gift to Consett seconds later as Hunter, spurning three different opportunities to launch a ball forward, got caught and his hurried clearance fell to Calvin Smith who chipped the ball in from 35-yards out to complete an trip to forget for Roofing.

SEEING RED ... referee Shane Sugden sends off Morien.

The defeat drops Roofing down to seventh place in the Northern League First Division with only four games remaining to try and claim a top five finish which would be a highest ever league placing.